Sabita Thanwani, who was in her first year of study at City University, was killed in August 2021

A MAN has admitted killing a 19-year-old student in her university halls, but will not stand trial for murder – sparking calls for an inquiry into whether she could have been protected.

Maher Maaroufe, 23, had been charged with murder but the Crown Prosecution Service has now accepted a guilty plea to manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility.

Sabita Thanwani was pronounced dead at her flat from neck injuries in August 2021. Her death led to searching questions and the Tribune’s emergency summit on violence against women and girls.

The student was in her first year at City University and had been living in the Arbour House student accommodation block a few minutes away from the main campus in Clerkenwell.

Maaroufe, who was in a relationship with Ms Thanwani, will be sentenced on the lesser charge in September, but details may now never enter the public record. We may never know what lessons need to be learned from the case.

Maher Maaroufe

Rachel Williams, from campaign group Stand Up To Domestic Abuse, stressed the importance of a “Domestic Homicide Review”, an inquiry process in which public bodies like social services, the police and the council determine how a victim’s death came about. The review establishes what can be done to stop something similar occurring in the future.

“A domestic homicide review might unearth a lot more evidence,” she said, adding: “It doesn’t just start with murder or manslaughter.”

Talking about violence in general rather than this specific case, the campaigner, who was shot and almost killed by her partner in 2011, said that often a death would be the final stage in a long sequence of progressively intensifying violence.

Left unchecked, patterns of abuse that often begin with controlling behaviour can spiral out of control, ending in serious violence, said Ms Williams, adding that robust checks and balances must be in place across “all walks of life” to identify any signs of domestic violence early.

She said: “If you’re waiting for violence, you’ve missed 98 per cent of the coercive control.”

Coercive control is an umbrella term used to describe a variety of abusive behaviours that allow someone to exert power over their victim.

Ms Thanwani’s uni friends released pink balloons in memory of the student

Examples of coercion include – but are not limited to – emotional and physical threats, isolating victims from family and friends, controlling what victims eat, wear or do, and controlling who they spend time with.

In Sabita’s case, a review could play a vital role in identifying whether more could have been done to protect her.

Ms Williams said better training is needed so that those working as “prosecutors, police officers, social workers, [and] housing officers” know how to identify early signs of abuse and coercion. “It comes down to the very fact that [some] don’t have enough specialist training,” Ms Williams said.

“I’m sick of hearing the same thing said over and over again by professionals when there has been a homicide: ‘Lessons will be learned.’ This has been said for numerous years. At the end of the day, people really need to understand what domestic abuse and coercion is. Domestic abuse is not somebody else’s problem. It’s everybody’s business.

Rachel Williams from Stand Up To Domestic Abuse

“Sadly, unless you’ve been affected by domestic abuse and violence directly or indirectly, people don’t really care, because it’s happening in somebody else’s house, and it’s none of their business. Well, I’m sorry to say, one day it could be your daughter, your sister, your aunt, your mother, that could be in that relationship.”

Meanwhile, campaigner Sarah Michael told the Tribune that while there are still lots of unknowns about the case, everyone in society has a responsibility to stop domestic violence.

“People don’t want to get involved and people take no notice and look the other way,” she said.

Ms Michael, who was a panelist at our summit last year, added: “Men must be accountable for their friends. If friends are being abusive towards their partner, their girlfriends, they need to say: ‘What are you doing?’ And have that conversation. It’s about making everyone responsible for each other.”

Ms Thanwani’s friends released pink balloons in Northampton Square last year.

Her family said they were very touched by the response to her death, urging those present to learn lessons from Sabita’s life: “Love with all your heart, be generous and, above all, be kind.”